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NCAA continues to follow lost cause

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Posted: Tuesday February 08, 2000 06:22 PM

By Albert Lin, CNNSI.com

	• Our New Favorite Player • High Five/Riding the Pine • Storylines • Don't Miss It • Brendan Haywood Watch

A recent rash of incidents forces us to restate the obvious: Something stinks about the NCAA. The whole veil of amateurism, already transparent, should have been lifted back in 1989 when CBS agreed to pay $1 billion to televise the men's basketball tournament for seven years. Yet the NCAA continues to pretend it is not a professional, money-making enterprise. It continues to nitpick violations, hurting some schools but not others. It levies sanctions against some athletes who show up on campus with cars, when perhaps it should be asking how any of these players can afford a fresh set of wheels. Forgive us for being cynical, but there is something incongruous about a kid pleading poverty while rolling around in his late-model SUV. Rather than making a decision that covers everyone, however, the NCAA only goes after a school here and a school there.

The fact is, all big-time programs bend the rules, or at the very least stretch interpretation as much as possible, be it related to academics, meals, housing or other "improper benefits" (whatever that means). Rather than selective enforcement -- punishing Michigan's Jamal Crawford for living with someone who, essentially, was his guardian; investigating St. John's Erick Barkley for swapping his vehicle for a family friend's -- the NCAA needs to eliminate gray areas and loopholes. Unfortunately, the only real way to do that is to forget about the noble cause of educating student-athletes. In basketball especially, the majority of top-level Division I performers have one goal in sight: making the NBA. There will always be a place for kids who actually want an education, but those who generate the television billions should be paid or at the very least taken out of college and put in a minor-league system. That way there can never be any hint of impropriety. It will be every man for himself. Boosters or family friends or what-have-you can shower athletes with riches; colleges can bid on kids and pay them whatever they want. All without the specter of the NCAA hanging overhead.

Why waste all these resources looking into possible violations of unenforceable rules? Eliminate those rules and end the hypocrisy. The sooner the better.

Lonny Baxter, so., C, Maryland

Baxter was a little soft as a freshman, but he toned up during the off-season and finally exploded for a long-anticipated career day -- 31 points, 10 rebounds, seven blocks -- in the Terps' win over N.C. State. The 6'8", 225-pounder (we'd add 30 to that figure) possesses an array of easily identifiable skills -- a soft touch, good hands, nimble feet, strong frame -- that should eventually turn him into an NBA first-rounder. We see him more as a Popeye Jones-type performer -- and remember that Jones was a double-double guy in the NBA before he was beset by knee problems -- rather than along the lines of Robert Traylor. Baxter doesn't have weight problems, he's just big-boned.

HIGH FIVE Duke-North Carolina: College basketball titans treat America to another memorable batle.

HIGH FIVE Loren Woods: Ties NCAA record with 14 blocks against Oregon. Don't you think the Ducks would've figured it out after, oh, eight or nine?

HIGH FIVE Michigan State: Spartans have finally hit their stride with Mateen Cleaves back running the show.

HIGH FIVE Kaspars Kambala: Mountain West's leading scorer and rebounder helps UNLV end Utah's 23-game conference winning streak.

HIGH FIVE Darren Fenn: 28 points (18-19 FT), 22 rebounds as Canisius outlasts Manhattan (led by Bruce Seals' NCAA-record 27 three-point attempts) in four overtimes.

RIDING THE PINE Big East/Atlantic 10: Remember all the talk about whether the latter had surpassed the former? Does anyone care nowadays?

RIDING THE PINE JaRon Rush: Slapped with a whopping 44-game suspension (extending 17 games into 2000-01) for taking money from an agent and his AAU coach.

RIDING THE PINE Kansas: Team is in a swoon, losing three of five with Oklahoma State on tap Monday, and is now without Luke Axtell, who has an undisclosed medical condition.

Team turmoil

Rumors are rampant that Michigan AD Tom Goss is being forced out, with the latest troubles surrounding the basketball program finally doing him in. Goss was clearly in over his head running a big-time athletic department. To his credit, he maintained certain old-fashioned ideas and values that he tried desperately to execute, but they just didn't jibe with a nationally prominent program. Coach Brian Ellerbe has supposedly earned a vote of confidence, but his team is falling apart, with three straight 20-plus-point losses. Will the axe fall on his head as well?

Six-pack

The top six in both polls -- Cincinnati, Stanford, Duke, Syracuse, Ohio State, Michigan State -- seem to have separated themselves from the rest of the country. If Richard Jefferson comes back healthy, Arizona has a chance to crash this group. Otherwise, it's hard to see anyone else making the Final Four.

Kentucky at Florida, Tuesday, 9 p.m. ET

Jamaal Magloire finally woke up and the Cats have been on a hot streak. The Gators haven't beaten anyone of significance all season, and right now Kentucky is pretty significant.

Syracuse at Louisville, Thursday, 9 p.m.

Assuming the Orangemen get past Seton Hall Monday night, they will bring a 20-0 record into Freedom Hall. The maddeningly erratic Cardinals are good enough to beat anyone if their shots are falling. They could spring the upset if they keep the game uptempo.

Florida at Tennessee, Saturday, 3 p.m.

Looks like an 0-2 week for the Gators. Tennessee is rolling and should have no problems fending off Florida at home, though the Vols needed double overtime to subdue the Gators in Gainesville.

DePaul at Cincinnati, Sunday, 3:30

A chance to see the No. 1 team in the country and two of the nation's top players in DePaul's Quentin Richardson and Cincinnati's Kenyon Martin. The Blue Demons have been off all year, but this would be a perfect time to put it together.

In the tradition of last season's William Avery Watch, we return to Tobacco Road to follow the trials and tribulations of another underachieving player whose improvement is crucial to his team's success. This 7-footer grabbed one rebound in the final two games of last season (losses to Duke in the ACC Tournament and Weber State in the NCAA Tournament), covering 57 minutes of playing time.

1999-00 stats: 13.0 pts., 6.7 rebs., 2.5 blks. in 28.0 minutes per game

A very mediocre week: nine points, 10 rebounds, four blocks, fouled out in loss to Duke; 11 points, eight rebounds in win over Clemson. Total of nine field-goal attempts in the two games, once again raising the question of why the nation's leading shooter (72.6%) isn't getting more than a handful of shots.

Come back every Monday afternoon for a new College Basketball Week at a Glance.

 

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